Red Sox manager Terry Francona checked in with Dale & Holley to talk about the upcoming ALDS against the Angels.

Following is a transcript of the interview. For the audio, visit the Dale & Holley audio on demand section.

Did you get a chance to watch that [Tigers-Twins] game last night?

Yeah. You know what, we were on the field working out. They had it on the screen, so there wasn’t any volume. But you could just see the game, it was slowly getting everybody’s interest. When our workout was over, everybody ran into the clubhouse because we thought we were seeing the end of the game. Little did we know there was still an hour-and-a-half to go. What a game. That had to be good for baseball. I’m sure that was tough on [Twins manager Ron Gardenhire] and [Tigers manager] Jim Leyland — their stomachs. But that was unbelievable. It was a shame somebody had to lose. Because so many things happened — not all of them good — but you could tell their hearts were in the right place. Everybody was trying to do something to help their team win a game.

Do you agree with [Joe Torre's comment that the sixth inning is the toughest inning of the game for a manager]?

I sure do. If you look back at one of the biggest mistakes that I think — and I’ve owned up to this — when we brought Cla Meredith here. And remember, it didn’t work. And my big thing to Theo [Epstein] was, ‘Theo, we can’t get through the sixth inning.’ We didn’t have a bridge. We had a bunch of starters at that time that, we’d get to the sixth — it would be 5-2/3, 5-1/3, and I didn’t feel that some of them had enough to get pivotal outs. And we needed a bridge to our next guys because it was too early. It’s always a big inning. I can’t tell you how many times you get to the sixth inning and it seems like the leadoff hitter’s leading off and you’re going right through the heart of the order. It’s a huge inning.

Watching [Tigers outfielder Ryan Raburn] play a single into a triple, I’m thinking [the Metrodome] must be a difficult ballpark to play in, with the roof. And the second thing is if you’ve got a lead late in the game, maybe that’s the mistake of a young player, trying to make a big play and then turning it into a huge mistake.

I’m sure that their defense was set up where that wasn’t supposed to happen. I have a feeling if you go back and slow it down, and I’d love to hear the interview, my guess is the last couple of feet, though, he lost the ball. Because if you look at his body, he actually got himself in position where it looks like he should have had a better chance to make that catch. And then the last two feet, he didn’t really make an effort to make the catch. I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost that ball. Because the end was a little awkward. And I think he positioned himself better where he could have had a chance to make the catch.

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